Categories: Making Music
With 4 albums coming out this Fall, there’s lots of music and lots of album art! Here’s a sneak peek at the artwork… Me to We Takes you on a heartfelt journey from solitude to joyous love. The Current Agenda Powerful, brutal, heartfelt electro-chamber social justice music. You Haven’t Been Introspective piano music – beautifully […]
Categories: Love, Making Music
When I work with Jean, I have two spots I like to sit: either on the couch behind him so I can hear the bigger sound, or directly to his left at the board in an old black chair that looks like it was salvaged from the set of Little House on the Prairie. I […]
Categories: Making Music
How many different subjects race through my mind on a three minute walk? Well, there’s Love in 6 Stages, the Museum of Contemporary Art (opening Fall 2017!?), the fabulous Jean Martin and Laura Swankey, and well, walking, of course!
Categories: Making Music
Saturday, March 25 is Earth Hour. I always get excited at this time of year because I share strong feelings about the importance of Earth Hour’s mandate. And from a creative standpoint, Earth Hour has given me such a wonderful platform to share my music and feelings. It all started on March 28, 2009, when […]
Categories: Making Music
If you didn’t know, I’ve been working on composing music for a musical called SKI Club since December 2014, and it’s still not done. That might seem like a long time, but the thing I’ve learned about working on this project is that it takes a long time for a musical to come together. I […]
Categories: Making Music
Last fall, I recorded 13 new piano compositions for my future album, You Haven’t Been. The pieces are inspired by a variety of themes: despair, depression, yearning, introspection and contemplation. These are all subjects and emotions I feel I have intimate knowledge of. I’ve battled depression for years. And through a lot of hard work […]
Categories: Making Music, Music
Back in June of this year, I started this monthly blog series sharing the progress of my efforts to compose, produce and fund 4 different albums of my compositions, all simultaneously, in the short time span of a year. After much thought, I’ve decided to make this the last post in this series, for 3 […]
Categories: Making Music
I’ve previously used my blog to talk about how special my mom is to me. A recent phone conversation with her confirmed this sentiment… I recently had 3 performances of a new composition of mine for violin and piano performed in Montreal and Ottawa. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend any of these performances. […]
Categories: Making Music
If you read Lisa’s guest blog post last month, you’ll know that we’ve hit a bit of a wall in the $$$ department. Despite the financial support of FACTOR and the Ontario Arts Council, our budget has run into the red in completing the four albums, despite running a tight ship and attempting to keep […]
Categories: Concerts, Making Music
It was earlier this year that the violinist, Ralitsa Tcholakova, asked if I could compose a piece for violin and piano that recognized the fall of the Berlin Wall in the late 1980s. What resulted was A Secret Streamlet, a flowing piece inspired by a defiant letter that the then Czech playwright and activist, Vaclav […]
Categories: Concerts, Making Music
When Michael Westwood asked me to compose a new piece for the November 9 concert in his Toronto chamber music series, I said sure! When he suggested that the piece be on a theme around memories, I got more than I bargained for. Various chapters in my life flooded my heart and soul, many very […]
Categories: Life, Making Music
As Frank got over the hump of recording half of his upcoming four albums, even the most focused artist begins to ask, ‘So… How are we doing financially?’ When I began to hesitantly say, ‘Well, the budgets are… complicated…’, I somehow ended up getting the task of writing this month’s update – all about budgets! […]
Categories: Making Music
Much of my musical output tends to either explore the beauty of people-kind, or the sheer horror of it. When coming up with ideas for a new composition, I usually look around me for some inspiration within one of these 2 sentiments. May 23rd of this year was no different. Lisa had suggested I compose […]
Categories: Making Music
A couple of weeks ago, I looked at the calendar and realized that the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks was almost here. I had not thought about that day for some time, which is surprising to me since it was a day that was etched in my heart and mind for so long. […]
Categories: Making Music
Unlike July, August was thankfully more productive. But Lisa and I still feel behind. Perhaps we’re over our heads. What made us think that we could organize and execute the recording of four albums of my compositions all in one year??? Not too mention, other projects at the same time?!? Despite the angst, we feel […]
